Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to congratulate everyone who took part on the weekend in the Walk Together walk. Walk Together was an event by Welcome to Australia to celebrate Refugee Week. Walk Together was a celebration of all that diversity adds to our society, culture and nation as we recognise that we have all walked different paths to become part of the combined Australian journey. Each walk finished at a place of local significance with a small festival celebrating the diverse cultures that make up the Australian experience. It gave everyone in the community—long-term Australians, Indigenous Australians, refugees, migrants, international students and all other Australian citizens—the chance to welcome the latest arrivals to our community and to demonstrate our support for its beautiful multicultural reality.

Walk Together took place in 10 capital cities and several regional cities around the nation and was a very successful day, with more than 1,000 people attending in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne and very strong turnouts elsewhere. In Adelaide I attended the walk with Premier Jay Weatherill and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Jennifer Rankine. It was great to see former Premier Lynn Arnold, Kim Heibenstreit from Thebarton Senior College, Senator Don Farrell and many others there. Walk Together was very successful all around the country. Congratulations to Brad Chilcott, the founder and director of Welcome to Australia, on organizing this wonderful event.

Throughout the walk, the thoughts of participants were with the people who lost their lives in last week's boat tragedy—17 bodies have been recovered and 110 people have been rescued. If there is one good thing to come out of these terrible events, it is that it has become increasingly obvious that it is time to end the politics of fear and division when it comes to asylum seekers. We need to not only walk together but work together too—as a community and as politicians. If there is one resounding message from Walk Together, it is that change has to start from here, from this parliament we have been elected to. We cannot expect our communities to walk together if, as politicians, we are not willing to work together.

That is why it has been great that Welcome to Australia has received so much support from across the political divide, including from: Senator Kate Lundy, the Minister for Multicultural Affairs; Senator Christine Milne, Leader of the Australian Greens; Judi Moylan; Sarah Hanson-Young; and many others. As I said, we cannot expect our communities to walk together unless we in this place start to work together. (Time expired)